As data traffic is rapidly increased, data transmission/receipt speed of I/O bus connecting integrated circuits is also being quickly increased. For last decades, conductor-based interconnects (e.g., copper wires) with high cost and power efficiency have been widely applied to wired communication systems. However, such conductor-based interconnects have inherent limitations in channel bandwidths due to skin effect caused by electromagnetic induction.
Meanwhile, optic-based interconnects with high data transmission/reception speed have been introduced and widely used as an alternative to the conductor-based interconnects. However, the optic-based interconnects have limitations in that they cannot completely replace the conductor-based interconnects because the costs of installation and maintenance thereof are very high.
Recently, a new type of interconnect comprising a waveguide composed of a dielectric has been introduced. Since the new type of interconnect (so-called e-tube) has advantages of both of metal and dielectric, it has high cost and power efficiency and enables high-speed data communication within a short range. Thus, it has come into the spotlight as an interconnect employable in chip-to-chip communication.
In this regard, the inventor(s) present a technique for a transition with a novel structure to allow a microstrip (i.e., a microstrip circuit) and a waveguide to be coupled alongside each other.